


A Terrible Favor

by Ljparis



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Regency, Blood Purism is Mentioned, Butlers Being Butlers, F/M, Gen, Lily is Exasperated, London, Magic still exists, Marriage Proposal, Marriage of Convenience, Muggle London, Muggle Society, Sirius is Being Dramatic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22407502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ljparis/pseuds/Ljparis
Summary: "I need a terrible favor, Evans," Sirius said with a dramatic sigh. "I wish I didn't have to ask but, frankly, it's completely unavoidable."
Relationships: Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 104
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	A Terrible Favor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Entwinedlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/gifts).



> This was an absolute delight to write. I've never thought about taking Harry Potter into a Regency AU but goodness, this was fun. I hope you enjoy what I wrote for you!

Lily looked up from the letter she was writing when someone cleared their throat from the doorway to the drawing room. "Miss Lily," Jarvis, the Evans' butler, said when he had her attention. "A Mister Sirius Black is here to see you." A distasteful look crossed the usually stoic butler's face, and Lily could only imagine the state Sirius must be in to elicit a breach of Jarvis's demeanor. 

She smiled brightly and stood to smooth the wrinkles out of the folds of her afternoon dress. "Please send him in," she said, then before Jarvis could turn to leave, continued with, "oh, and please ask Cook to send up a plate of biscuits and hot tea. Thank you, Jarvis."

If the butler was surprised, he'd already returned to his normal emotionless expression, and didn't show it. "Yes, Miss Lily."

The moment he stepped aside and exposed the drawing room doorway, Sirius burst in, all long legs and unfastened waistcoat, all crooked cravat and hair unfashionably long and loose from a queue. He threw himself onto the chaise lounge next to where Lily stood but waited until the butler's footsteps had faded away before he spoke. He looked with disdain at the open door then flicked his eyebrows up to his hairline.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake. I can't shut the door, Sirius," she hiss-whispered at him. "You know perfectly well that isn't appropriate. I know you earned a NEWT in Muggle Studies."

"A fact which, I'm sure, has given my mother mother fits," he said, grinning widely. He took up most of the chaise, draped over it like he owned the place, and drew out his wand. 

With a rather graceful swish, Lily felt the air in the drawing room shift. They were under a _muffliato_ charm. Appearances aside, that signalled a serious intent for Sirius's presence, and Lily pursed her lips together. "What is it?" she asked.

If they were at school, she might have sat with him, but as it was instead the drawing room of her parents' townhouse in London, she sat on a different chair entirely. "I need a terrible favor, Evans," he said with a dramatic sigh. "I wish I didn't have to ask but, frankly, it's completely unavoidable. I've drawn up a list and your name kept coming out on top. I've looked at every option to avoid having to ask. I even had Moony go over all the legal nonsense, but -"

"Ask what?" Lily said, not impatiently per see (a well-bred young woman would certainly never show her impatience, not even to a very good school chum who always deserved a little impatience), but certainly with a 'get on with it' tone.

He sighed again, this time even bigger and more dramatically than the first. "I need you to _marry_ me, Evans," Sirius said. 

He didn't give her even a moment to respond before he was off again. "My dear old mother seems to have written into some sort of LEGAL and BINDING contract that I've got to marry before I turn twenty-one which, truly, is the biggest load of shite I've ever heard in my entire life. Of course," he kept on going, not leaving space for her interject or ask the dozen questions already on the tip of her tongue, "one would THINK this would only be if I want to inherit, which OBVIOUSLY I don't want to do - seeing as how I've run off and been blasted off the family tree and such already - but it isn't. It's about my MAGIC, Evans. That mad old bat has somehow discovered this horrible dark magic that she could call upon that would _make me a squib_. A SQUIB, Evans! Me!" His stormy eyes widened as much as the flailing of his arms as he spoke. "But the thing is - and this is probably because she never could have imagined a son of hers, a BLACK, would ever be a blood traitor - she didn't put any stipulations on the WHO in the marriage equation. Well, that's not entirely true, the document does say 'witch,' so that's why I'm here talking to you instead of, say, running off to Scotland with Remus or James."

Lily blinked at him. Several times, in fact. After seven years at school with Sirius Black (not to mention James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew), Lily was used to this sort of rambling tirade full of well-placed EMPHASIS. It was just that she never expected to hear … Well, she wasn't even sure what she was hearing, exactly. 

After taking a deep breath and focusing over at Sirius, who wasn't even looking at her as he lounged on the chaise with an arm thrown over his face, she spoke. "I'm sorry," she said, folding her hands over her lap. "Did you just propose marriage to me?"

He sat up, his arm dropping, and looked at her. "Ah, Evans, sorry," he said. He slid to his knees and scooted across the floor until he was in front of her. "That wasn't very well done of me, was it?"

Lily looked at him in something very akin to horror and started to shake her head. "Sirius, don't you dare - !"

"Evans, I know you can do better. I also know there's going to be a steep hill to climb, during which we have to convince your father that I'm a, let's face it, _mediocre_ suitor but really, now that I think about it, your father might not need convincing, it'll be the rest of Muggle society or what-not since in all outward appearances, I'm nobody. Without a - what's Muggle currency called again? Oh, right - I'm some nobody without even a pound to his name -"

"You _are_ without a pound to your name," Lily pointed out, at last managing to interrupt him.

His brow furrowed. "Well, yes, that's a fact, but I've got quite a lot of galleons, you know, even without any sort of Black family inheritance, which I don't want anyway -"

" _Sirius_ ," Lily said.

He snapped his mouth shut and looked at her. "Yes, Evans?"

"If I say yes, will you stop talking?"

"You're going to say yes?" he asked, incredulous.

Lily pressed her hand to her cheek and tried not to laugh. "You proposed to me without thinking that I might actually say yes?" This was just like him, she thought, to run full-on ahead at something without giving the potential outcomes any thought at all. 

He shrugged but before he could say anything, Jarvis walked into the drawing room with the tea service. Besides a stern glance at Sirius, who was still on his knees in front of Lily in what had to appear like a rather inappropriate situation, the butler didn't react. Sirius didn't even bother to get up, but he did smile, showing his teeth, at the butler.

When Jarvis reached for the tea pot, Lily spoke up. "I can take care of the tea, Jarvis, thank you. That will be all." She knew he didn't appreciate being dismissed like that by the way he righted himself, back straight, with a palm to his stomach. He inclined his head at her and then, without so much as another glance at Sirius, left the room.

"Oh Merlin, he does _not_ like me," Sirius said. He pushed himself to his feet and made a show of brushing off his trousers.

"He doesn't like anyone, really," Lily said. "Or, at least, he doesn't like anyone outside of the family. And you're - well, I suppose if he knew how well-bred you actually are, at least in the wizarding world - " She gave him a look when he rolled his eyes. " - yes, yes you know perfectly well how I feel about the whole purist movement," she continued, "and it's the same here, in Muggle society, based on rank and family name. All I'm saying is, if the two worlds were one and the same, and he knew that 'Black' was a Sacred-28 name, he probably wouldn't be looking down his nose at you."

"I hate all of it," Sirius said, sounding miserable. "You know that. I know that. Just - I like who I am, Evans. I like that I'm a wizard. I don't know who I'd be without magic."

She felt the same way. Lily thought back to her early signs of magic, how scared she was at this part of herself that she didn't understand. Then, when Minerva visited the Evans' country estate in Kent to explain it all, just after Lily's eleventh birthday, how perfectly right it all felt. She knew her circumstances were different from Sirius's - she was a witch through some odd fluke of biology whereas he had magic in his blood bred from centuries of other Blacks - but she understood how he felt.

"I know," she said simply. Lily reached out and pressed her fingertips against the back of his hand. Neither of them were wearing gloves, and his skin felt warm and rough. "Which is why, of course I'll marry you." At his relieved smile, she smiled right back. "Although you'll have to ask my father and I'm sure he'll want to draw up some sort of contract and hopefully there won't - "

Sirius cut her off by lurching toward her to hug her, spinning her around. She laughed and held onto him. "You're the greatest, Evans. Truly. Your father I can handle. That'll be the easy part. The hard part will be telling my mum. Part of me wants to see her drop dead from the scandal of it all but it's probably better if we just send an announcement by owl." 

Lily agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! If you did, I'd appreciate it if you hit kudos and left a comment.


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